REELpoetry 2023 – Translation, Deaf and Hard of Hearing films, Ecopoetry film, Voice, Activism, Fragmentation
REELpoetry 2023 is upcoming at the end of the month – February 25th and 26th – (and generously on demand from February 27th to March 17th) with a wide selection of poets and filmmakers and strongly inclusive of the deaf and hard of hearing.
I first presented at REELpoetry just before Lockdown in 2020, with UPROOTED curation, with films on the refugee crisis. It was memorable in that Fran organised a reading by a number of Houston-based poets interwoven with the screening which prompted a great discussion. Since then I have been involved in the organisation / judging every year, and this year I was fortunate to be one of the judges of the exciting and innovative open competition with festival director Fran Sanders and Australian filmmaker Ian Gibbins. Look out for that and the talented winners!
Curators and presenters include: Laura Bianco (Italy), Helen Dewbery (England), Colm Scully (Ireland), Eleanor Livingstone (Scotland), Sabina England, Aarron Loggins, Jonathan Lamy (Canada), Rachel McCrum (Canada), Crom Saunders, Peter Cook, Douglas Ridloff, Estefania Diaz (Mexico), Pamela Falkenberg (USA) and Jack Cochran (USA), Ian Gibbins (Australia), Mary McDonald (Canada) and myself Sarah Tremlett (England).
In relation to the devastating effects of climate change, Ian Gibbins, Mary McDonald and myself are presenting a documentary discussion on Ecopoetry Films and Subjectivity on Sunday 26th. See TRAILER above.
Coming from three different parts of the world it was a salutary lesson in the geopolitics of catastrophe poetry film and how we are addressing the news we hear every day. Also how we want to share our feelings on the subject.I have to say this was a really revealing discussion, particularly for me, as Mary and Ian had some really perceptive things to say about my work, and I seldom have such great one-to-one comments made. Mary’s films are Wishing Well (poet Penn Kemp) and Utility Pole (poet Fiona Tinwei Lam); Ian’s floodtide, and colony collapse, and mine I Cannot be Human, and Villanelle for Elizabeth not Ophelia.
In conjunction with announcing this event, it is high time that I featured Ian Gibbins’ work on Liberated Words. Please see the previous post and Ecopoetry Films for a link to four of his most outstanding films: The Life We Live Is Not Life itself, floodtide, Colony Collapse, and The Ferrovores. If you tune in for our session you can find out more about Ian’s thinking on the background of floodtide and Colony Collapse.
